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HUDDLE FIRST LOOK: DEMS’ LETTERS TARGET 22 REPUBLICANS ON DISCHARGE PETITION: Senior House Democrats have a message for the 22 Republicans who have signaled they’d vote for a clean, no-strings-attached bill to fund the government and end the shutdown: Just sign here.

Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), George Miller (D-Calif.), and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) later today will send letters to the Republicans (identified in media whip counts), urging them to sign a discharge petition that would “force an up or down vote to re-open the federal government.” Members can begin signing the petition Saturday, seven legislative days after it was introduced.

Speaker John Boehner has refused to bring the Senate-passed clean continuing resolution to the House floor, saying it wouldn’t have enough votes to pass. But President Obama and Hill Democrats have repeatedly dared Boehner to pass a clean CR with a bare majority: all 200 Democrats and another 20 or so Republicans. The magic number is 217.

The letters will include quotes from the 22 Republicans pledging they’d vote for a clean continuing resolution, including Reps. Scott Rigell, Rob Wittman and Frank Wolf of Virginia, Dennis Ross and Bill Young of Florida, and Michael Grimm, Richard Hanna and Peter King of New York. “The discharge petition is an opportunity for a majority of House members – Republican and Democratic – to join together to vote on a clean funding resolution that will reopen the government, put Americans back to work, and restore needed services,” a draft copy of the letters state.

However, it’s unlikely the Republicans would go the discharge-petition route. For one thing, House procedural rules require days – or perhaps weeks -- of waiting before a vote. And with the government bumping up against its debt ceiling on Oct. 17, the CR looks like it will get folded into broader debt negotiations. Some targeted Republicans have already said they won’t sign. Read a copy of the draft letter here:http://1.usa.gov/GNuteUThe Washington Post has a handy whip count here:http://wapo.st/1fIQVG3

POLITICO, “GOP unity frays, frustration builds,” By Jake Sherman: “A reality is beginning to dawn on — and eat away at — many House Republicans: They aren’t at all sure of their party's strategy to re-open government and lift the debt ceiling. After forcing leadership to pick a fight it didn’t want to pick, sitting through hours of meetings with lots of internal hand-wringing and failing to force Democrats to negotiate, the path to avoid a prolonged government shutdown and the first debt default in American history is completely uncertain. ‘If anybody tells you it’s clear to anybody let me know,’ said Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, the chairman of the Rules Committee and a member of Republican leadership. ‘I’ll call them collect.’

-- “Now, the party is flagging in polls one week into the first government shutdown in nearly two decades. And they’re just eight days ahead of the deadline set by the Treasury to lift the debt ceiling. A slew of House Republicans are now saying they believe they won’t bear responsibility for a default. … In the many legislative wrestling matches since Republicans took the House in 2011, there has always been the faint signs of an endgame. Either Obama would cut a deal with Speaker John Boehner or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would work something out with Vice President Joe Biden. But this time, as Wall Street lights up the phones of rank-and-file House Republicans and public sentiment turns sharply against the party, things are stuck in neutral.” http://politi.co/1goK9Do

BUT THERE’S A SILVER LINING FOR BOEHNER: He’s winning praise from the GOP’s tea-party base. POLITICO’s John Bresnahan and John Harris report: “As he tries to navigate the politics of a government shutdown that he never wanted, leading a Republican Conference with little interest in being led, House Speaker John Boehner in recent days has scored an unlikely victory of sorts. Interviews with tea party-aligned House members and other hard-line conservatives reveal a modest if unmistakable rise in support for Boehner — a politician they have previously disdained and tried unsuccessfully to evict from power. … In an odd turnabout, the grumbling about Boehner’s speakership now is rising from the establishment, old-school Republicans who traditionally have been his base of support. These legislators privately wonder whether Boehner is strong enough to both effectively steer the party and avoid a right-wing revolt.

-- “The interviews reveal unanimity on one point: Boehner’s speakership now hinges on whether he can somehow emerge from the showdowns over funding the government and raising the debt limit with some victory in hand and without a capitulation to Obama and Hill Democrats. … Until this week, there was a widespread assumption — even among many Boehner allies in the House — that there was little chance he could win a third term as speaker, even if the GOP keeps its House majority in the 2014 elections. He barely won a second term last January, in the face of tea party opposition. Now, the chain-smoking, low-key Boehner seems to have bought himself some margin — a slim one that could easily disintegrate under the pressure of upcoming events.” http://politi.co/17mh6se

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#PROCHAT TODAY AT 1:30 P.M.— Join David Nather, author of POLITICO’s “Understanding Obamacare” guide, and the POLITICO Pro health care team today at 1:30 p.m. on Twitter with hashtag #ProChat to talk all things ACA and ask your questions about Obamacare. Learn more:POLITICO.com/ProChat

LIBERALS ARE MULLING USING THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION’ in response to threats by Senate Republicans that they would filibuster Democrats’ plan to raise the U.S. debt limit, report POLITICO’s Manu Raju and Burgess Everett. “Such a move would prompt howls of outrage from Republicans and could have dramatic implications for the future of the Senate. But it would allow Senate Democrats to pass a bill raising the borrowing limit through 2014 and shift the burden to the House GOP before a potentially devastating default on the $16.7 trillion national debt on Oct. 17.” http://politi.co/1a9PLuZ

HOUSE’S LATEST IDEA: SUPERCOMMITTEE PART DEUX, SORT OF – NPR’s Frank James explains: “The latest House GOP gambit in the fiscal fight is ... wait for it ... a supercommittee. But Republicans aren't calling it a supercommittee since that's the term for that brought us the the sequester. Instead, it's called the Bicameral Working Group on Deficit Reduction and Economic Growth. The special panel would have 20 members, evenly divided between the House and Senate, who would recommend a budget for fiscal 2014 (which began Oct. 1), and craft details of a new debt ceiling and spending cuts. One problem with the idea: The proposal has practically no chance of passing in a Senate led by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev). President Obama was also dismissive in his Tuesday press conference. … The legislation is the House Republicans' attempt to codify as much as possible their request for negotiations with President Obama and Senate Democrats. And when Senate Democrats consign it to the ever-growing pile of House GOP bills they've killed, Republicans can point to that as yet another example of Democratic intransigence.” http://n.pr/1ak04hb

BOEHNER, after the House passed legislation creating the new deficit working group:“We need to end this government shutdown and get on with the important business of growing our economy, providing fairness for all Americans under ObamaCare, and controlling spending – but we can’t do that if President Obama and Senate Democrats won’t negotiate. So tonight the House voted to create a formal, bipartisan, House-Senate working group to resolve our differences so we can reopen the government and address our debt.”

-- REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-Md.), a member of the doomed supercommittee 1, called the new deficit panel “a sham committee” and wouldn’t serve again because he’s “not a glutton for punishment.” He told Huddle: “They are trying to use this forum to continue to hold the federal government hostage and the full-faith and credit of the United States hostage. What we’ve said is we want to sit down and discuss the budget issues, but you’ve got to release the hostages: the government shutdown and the full-faith and credit of the United States. We’ve been trying to negotiate [on the budget] since March. It’s a sham committee because the charter of the committee does not allow it to look at all aspects of deficit reduction. They exclude the idea of closing any tax breaks for the purpose of deficit reduction, so tell me what kind of negotiation is that.”

SHUTDOWN STARTS TO HIT HOME …

-- The House will vote today to restore military death benefits halted by the shutdown: “Death benefits for the survivors of U.S. military personnel would be renewed under legislation that House leaders plan to take up today after the payments were halted by the partial federal shutdown,” reports Bloomberg’s Timothy R. Homan. “When most government funding ended Oct. 1 in a standoff between President Barack Obama and House Republicans, the Pentagon stopped paying the $100,000, tax-exempt ‘death gratuity’ that’s intended to provide immediate cash to the survivors of U.S. military personnel.” http://buswk.co/19xYqfE

-- Vietnam veteran and prisoner of war John McCain said Congress should be “ashamed” for suspending benefits for the families of five soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan. http://reut.rs/17l0Vv1

-- The Center for Disease Control recalled 30 furloughed workers to handle a new salmonella outbreak in chicken that has sickened 278 people in 17 states, NPR reports. The USDA had to assure the public it was still on the job, despite the shutdown. http://n.pr/GNkJ49

-- Michelle Langbehn is one of about 200 cancer patients who are being turned away from clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health each week due to the shutdown. WaPo’s Sarah Kliff has the interview. http://wapo.st/17NDkrn

GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, OCT. 9, 2013, and welcome to The Huddle, your-play-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don’t already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.

My new followers include @mattiasgugel and @joshledermanAP.

TODAY IN CONGRESS – The House meets at 10 a.m. with first and last votes expected between 2 and 3 p.m. on a bill to reinstate death benefits for soldiers who die during the government shutdown and the Flight Safety Act, which funds the Federal Aviation Administration. The Senate is in at 10:30 a.m. and will be in a period of Morning Business for debate until 2 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL – Rep. Lee Terry discusses his efforts to restore funding to NHTSA during a RealClearPolitics event at 8 a.m. at Charlie Palmer’s, 101 Constitution Ave NW. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mayor Vincent Gray and House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa speak on the impact of the shutdown on the D.C. budget at 10 a.m. at the Senate Swamp. Sens. Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Jon Tester, Mark Begich, Richard Blumenthal and Mazie Hirono speak on the impact of the government shutdown on veterans, at 10:30 a.m. in S-207.

Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Elijah Cummings, and Sen. Bernie Sanders speak on Chained CPI at 1 p.m. at the House Triangle. Also at 1 p.m., Rep. Chris Smith and others speak on healthcare enrollment in HVC Studio B. Sens. Jeff Flake and Rep. Ron Kind speak on the elimination of direct payments in the event of a farm bill extension at 2:30 p.m. at the Senate Swamp.

THE GOP’S DEFAULT DENIERS – Jonathan Weisman reports on A1 of the New York Times: “Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, a reliable friend of business on Capitol Hill and no one’s idea of a bomb thrower, isn’t buying the apocalyptic warnings that a default on United States government debt would lead to a global economic cataclysm. ‘We always have enough money to pay our debt service,’ said Mr. Burr, who pointed to a stream of tax revenue flowing into the Treasury as he shrugged off fears of a cascading financial crisis. ‘You’ve had the federal government out of work for close to two weeks; that’s about $24 billion a month. Every month, you have enough saved in salaries alone that you’re covering three-fifths, four-fifths of the total debt service, about $35 billion a month. That’s manageable for some time.’ …

-- “A surprisingly broad section of the Republican Party is convinced that a threat once taken as economic fact may not exist — or at least may not be so serious. Some question the Treasury’s drop-dead deadline of Oct. 17. Some government services might have to be curtailed, they concede. … Others say there is no deadline at all — that daily tax receipts would be more than enough to pay off Treasury bonds as they come due. ‘It really is irresponsible of the president to try to scare the markets,’ said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky. ‘If you don’t raise your debt ceiling, all you’re saying is, ‘We’re going to be balancing our budget.’ So if you put it in those terms, all these scary terms of, ‘Oh my goodness, the world’s going to end’ — if we balance the budget, the world’s going to end? Why don’t we spend what comes in?’” http://nyti.ms/19fNXSm

--POLITICO’s Ben White and Seung Min Kim also have a story today on the return of the debt deniers:http://politi.co/15ZIwEM

HOUSE BUDGET CHAIRMAN PAUL RYAN (R-Wis.), in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, says it’s time for President Obama to negotiate on the debt ceiling. And he’s got some ideas: “We could ask the better off to pay higher premiums for Medicare. We could reform Medigap plans to encourage efficiency and reduce costs. And we could ask federal employees to contribute more to their own retirement. The president has embraced these ideas in budget proposals he has submitted to Congress. And in earlier talks with congressional Republicans, he has discussed combining Medicare's Part A and Part B, so the program will be less confusing for seniors. These ideas have the support of nonpartisan groups like the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and they would strengthen these critical programs. And all of them would help pay down the debt.” http://on.wsj.com/1bWKx9d

EIGHT LAWMAKERS ARRESTED AT IMMIGRATION RALLY, ACCUSATIONS OF SHUTDOWN FAVORITISM – Julia Preston repots for the NYT: “As several thousand demonstrators rallied around them, eight members of the House of Representatives were arrested on Tuesday outside the Capitol in a protest to push Congress to pass broad immigration legislation that includes a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. … The lawmakers, all Democrats, were detained by the Capitol Police after they stood silently in a line in the middle of a street that borders the Capitol lawn, blocking traffic. As the police handcuffed them behind their backs and led them away, a crowd pressed in, chanting, ‘Let them go!’

-- “The representatives arrested wereJoseph Crowley and Charles B. Rangel of New York, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Al Green of Texas, Luis V. Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Raul M. Grijalva of Arizona and John Lewis of Georgia. More than 150 other protesters, many from labor unions and immigrant organizations, were also arrested after they sat down and linked arms in the same street. … In a storm of Twitter posts, conservatives questioned how the immigration groups could hold a demonstration on the Mall, which is a national park, when national parks and memorials are closed as a result of the government shutdown. House Republicans have tried to reopen parks and monuments while keeping most of the federal government closed.” http://nyti.ms/1fhdd0y Gutierrez posted photos of the rally (and arrests) on his Flickr account:http://bit.ly/1gpDOrd

YELLEN PRAISED BY DEMS WHO BALKED AT SUMMERS --Kathleen Hunter and Mark McQuillan report for Bloomberg: “Janet Yellen’s nomination as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve probably will face little resistance in the Senate, a sharp contrast to Lawrence Summers, whose candidacy sparked a rebellion among Democratic lawmakers. ‘She’s an excellent choice, and I believe she’ll be confirmed by a wide margin,’ Charles Schumer of New York, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, said in a statement. Democrats control the Senate by 54 votes to 46 for Republicans and have a two-seat edge on the Senate Banking Committee. Obama turned to Yellen, 67, currently the Fed’s vice chairman, after Summers, a former Treasury secretary and onetime economic adviser to the president, withdrew from consideration amid mounting complaints from Democrats on the Senate banking panel, which has jurisdiction over Fed nominees. …

-- “[But] Yellen will meet some Republican objections. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, one of the top Republicans on the banking committee, said her record will come under scrutiny. ‘I voted against Vice Chairman Yellen’s original nomination to the Fed in 2010 because of her dovish views on monetary policy,’ Corker said in a statement. ‘We will closely examine her record since that time, but I am not aware of anything that demonstrates her views have changed.’” http://bloom.bg/GMH9mc

-- Obama plans to nominate Yellen at the White House at 3 p.m. If confirmed, Yellen would become the first woman to lead the Fed in its 100-year history: http://on.wsj.com/17eFf4G

TUESDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – For his second consecutive win, Claude Marx was first to correctly answer that the last time we had a president from Ohio and a speaker from Illinois was 1909-11 when President William Howard Taft and Speaker Joseph Cannon were in office.

TODAY’S TRIVIA – Claude Marx has today’s question: Sen. Ted Cruz has been getting a lot of attention during the government shutdown. If he is elected president in 2016, Cruz would be the third Princeton graduate to occupy the White House. Name the other two. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says “Sign Up.” http://www.politico.com/huddle/

**A message from National Council of Chain Restaurants: “Feed Food Fairness: Take RFS Off the Menu,” is a food chain grassroots movement focused on repealing the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the corn ethanol mandate. Coalition members have joined with other allies to expose the harmful and costly economic effects of the RFS on small business chain restaurant owners and operators, and American consumers and diners. A recent PwC study [link to http://www.rfsoffthemenu.org/pwc-study] found that the federal mandate on corn-based ethanol substantially raises costs for chain restaurants on a wide variety of food commodities by $3.2 billion a year.